Henrik develops software for self-driving technology

Henrik Söderlund works with software for self-driving cars.

Image: Henrik Söderlund

"I feel like I get to work on something bigger, to save lives on the roads. To develop something that can prevent accidents from actually happening. It’s something I’m really passionate about, and that makes it a lot of fun" says Henrik Söderlund. 

Henrik Söderlund works as a software developer at Zenseact, a company owned by Volvo Cars. There, he helps develop software for self-driving technology and active safety in vehicles.

"In modern cars, there is automatic emergency braking, among other safety features, to prevent accidents from happening. Zenseact’s goal is to try to eliminate all accidents on the roads that are caused by human factors, such as fatigue or intoxication. It’s a rewarding job where you work for people’s safety" says Henrik Söderlund. 

Avoiding accidents

Software Integration Engineer is Henrik’s official job title. His primary job is to integrate software from the supplier into the car and test drive it. Among other things, they want to avoid accidents with pedestrians, and if the driver does not have time to brake, the car should be able to brake itself to prevent an accident.

"Zenseact is located in Gothenburg and Shanghai, so there are two offices with around 500 employees. We work with embedded systems that include real-time systems and so on. I test the software in the car" says Henrik. 

I was contacted by a recruitment company in Gothenburg before my degree project about a job at Volvo Cars. I accepted – packed up my family and moved down

Henrik says that there is a great demand for engineers in the industry, where employers are constantly looking for new workers. He found it easy to get a job.

Contacted by a recruitment company

"I was contacted by a recruitment company in Gothenburg before my degree project about a job at Volvo Cars. I accepted – packed up my family and moved down. It was a life-changing choice, but I am very happy with that decision" says Henrik. 

Because Henrik had children during his studies, he did not live the typical “student life” with lots of friends and parties. Despite this, he enjoyed himself in Umeå.

"I really enjoyed Umeå. We had fun, and we created as a group in the class, where we got to know each other and became very close. Umeå is a very nice city to live in" says Henrik. 

Interest in robots sparked during high school

It was during high school that Henrik became interested in technology and robots, and it has followed him ever since.

"I watched a presentation of a high school project where a guy showed off a robot he had built, but I didn't really understand how it worked. Previously, I had been more interested in game development. But I was completely "mind blown" by the fact that you could make something move in real life too. Right then and there, I was determined to find a university education where I could delve into this. That's when I chose Umeå." 

"So after three years of studies at bachelor's level in the engineering programme in Electronics and Computer Engineering, it was time for the master's programme in Robotics and Control. I had to add a course to become qualified, but otherwise the courses offered in the engineering programme was sufficient to get into the master's programme" says Henrik. 

To those of you who are thinking about studying the same programme, Henrik says: 

"It's a very good education if you dream of working with autonomous vehicles or robotics, or similar. I personally really enjoyed the time I had on the program. We learned interesting things, and it started to click how to apply mathematics in real scenarios. You realized that you need to know that stuff to be able to solve the problems that arise." 

Henrik recommends C++

"Many courses are in project form, where you work in groups to solve problems. I think that's very good, there are few other programmes that have this focus. I recommend that you take as many such courses as possible; that's what prepares you for working life. You learn to work in a group and handle the complexity of the problems, says Henrik.

"If you want to work with embedded systems, I recommend taking a course in C++, which can be a bit hard to find. But it's something that is used a lot in embedded systems" says Henrik.